Regeneration is Topic of University Professor Lecture by Susan Braunhut

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
3 p.m.

WHAT: Salamanders, starfish and lobsters share one thing in common ߝ their uncanny ability to spontaneously re-grow lost limbs. UMass Lowell Prof. Susan Braunhut and a team from the Biological Sciences Department are researching how to regenerate limbs in adult mammals, a process that only a short time ago was thought to be impossible. The team’s findings will be the highlight of Braunhut’s talk when she delivers her first University Professor Lecture, “To Grow Back a Lost Human Limb: The Challenges and Promise of Regenerative Medicine.” The event is free and open to the public.

Braunhut was named UMass Lowell’s University Professor for the start of the academic year in September. The honor recognizes a faculty member who has consistently demonstrated exemplary teaching, nationally significant research and extraordinary service to the university community. Her term as University Professor runs through August 2011.

Braunhut’s research, which explores new approaches to healing wounds and the development of a “smart” bandage, led to a $1.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to study limb-regeneration in mice, with potential applications to soldiers with limb injuries.

In her lecture, Braunhut will discuss healing wounds and the production of a “blastema,” a mass of unspecialized cells from which new tissue develops. Braunhut will also describe the “biodome,” a plastic device that uses special solutions to stimulate tissue growth. To learn more about Braunhut’s work, visit www.uml.edu/research_labs/susanbraunhut.

WHERE: Alumni Hall, UML North, 84 University Ave., Lowell. For directions and parking information, contact the Office of Public Affairs.